Whole Health Dietitian — Tastefully Fueling Active Transportation
I’m making an effort to post something everyday, but some days? It just doesn’t happen. Yesterday, we went straight from work (our day jobs) to the garden. We gardened until dark and I was way too exhausted to do anything but take a quick shower and go straight to bed, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Sometimes there will be days like that.
As soon as the waitress (or owner?) placed the dish in front of me, I was fairly certain that I would be taking some food home with me. And I thought, “Well, it’s a Chinese restaurant, so they’ll have those nice little cardboard boxes. Still disposable, so not as good as, say, bringing my own reusable container, but a lot better than styrofoam.”
Fast forward to the end of the meal. It’s a small restaurant and we’re standing at the counter to pay. I ask for a box and then see the huge pile of styrofoam, and the woman reaches for one. I start to panic. What to do? Do I take the styrofoam or do I say no thanks and waste the food? I really want to take the food home with me — it was good and I hate wasting food — but I also hate styrofoam. Dilemma. Which is the lesser of two evils?
At which point my non-panicking companion says, “Could we please have one of the little cardboard boxes?”
Maybe if I had taken a deep breath, I would have seen the cardboard boxes, too. Crisis averted.
After two days without my bike commute due to the presence of torrential downpours (as predicted in climate change models for this region), I went for a little run around my neighborhood last night. On the home stretch, about a block from the apartment, I passed a small group of people having a chat on off to one side of the sidewalk. On the other side of the sidewalk, in the street, there was a parked SUV with no one in it, but the engine was running. (Read my feelings about vehicles idling here.)
I ran past, and when I reached my apartment, I decided I could not in good conscience let that go, and, anyway, I needed a little walk as a cool down. So I turned around and walked back up the block. The encounter ensues:
I approach the group and say, “Excuse me, but I’m assuming this vehicle here that’s running belongs to one of you?”
Man says, in a somewhat sheepish voice, “Um, it’s mine.”
I say, “If you’re going to be parked for longer than 30 seconds, you’ll save on gas money and reduce pollution if you turn your vehicle off.”
Man says, “Okay,” walks over to SUV, reaches in through open window, and turns it off.
With a quick “Thanks,” I jog off into the night.
It’s not always that simple, but sometimes it is.
Can you hear me screaming through the computer? It just might be possible. I am far past the point of writing little poems about this situation. I have moved on to writing irate emails to anyone and everyone possibly involved in the idiocy and incompetence that is the new pedestrian/bicyclist underpass new mud swamp to the park.
I am tired of cyclists and pedestrians getting the shaft while priority is given to motorists. Why do I have to ride my bike through a swamp on my way to work?
Oh, because, “The construction activity near the tunnel is not yet complete. The tunnel was opened for use, so that the former tunnel could be closed and roadway construction could continue on schedule. There will be substantial improvements around the tunnel entrance areas as construction continues.”
Oh, good! I have no safe, convenient alternative to the mud swamp for my daily commute, but roadway construction, that will continue on schedule.
The only way to appease my wrath, in addition to correcting this deplorable situation in a very timely manner, would be for someone involved in the planning of this project to come and lick, yes lick, the mud off of my bike. Any takers?
I really like food — eating food, cooking food, talking about food, thinking about food. Fortunately, the husband shares these interests, so we usually cook together. When my sister asked me for recipes awhile back, I was stymied, because we don’t often cook from recipes. Sure, we have a shelf with lots of lovely cookbooks sitting on it, but except for some tried and true favorites, the cookbooks get little attention.
We prefer to cook with what we have on hand, trying ingredient combinations based on what sounds good and variants of dishes we enjoyed in the past. If we have any ingredient we’re unsure about, well, that’s where internet searches come into the picture. We also prioritize local foods which are abundant here right now, so without further ado, here are some recent creations.
* Food we grew (or foraged, in the case of the chanterelles).
** Food grown locally that we purchased from the farmer’s market or farmer.
Her Green Life